Reflection

Fine Arts and Foreign Language session with Laura Deisley

- when we introduce something new -- do we evaluate what we want to take away from the process sufficiently? We jump into new projects quickly (too quickly). Teacher burnout??? (response) How do we share a vision or mission? Acknowledge that we can't do everything at once? Add new things and keep doing everything else. e.g. maps then UBD book, and there was time to work on the maps. Now we maintain the maps when we change textbooks and approaches. Is UBD a part of the culture or was it just a given task? 2 cultures -- administrative culture and faculty.

- MS adrift? Many ideas come at us from other perspectives -- e.g. US aged learners. Today,community identity and parent support were built at SLA from another student base (failing public schools)

- when we work divisionally, does work in MS only limit our progress?

- strategic, thoughtful scope and sequence needed

- we don't think vertically enough between divisions and grade levels -- later parts of curriculum want more say in what earlier years do in preparation. In the other direction, if US wants a 7 day rotation, MS (and LS) have to deal with it

- major changes in philosophy within a division can be dramatic for families and faculty, as the student moves to next division and as faculty are confused or alarmed about how that will soon affect their classes or students. "no homework" policy in LS (some discussion of what this even is and many questions, including why did such a big thing happen that many of us had to hear about externally and still don't understand)

- is there misinformation between divisions? Need common language, values, vision not exclusive to each division

- alarming -- how involved in learning and using new technologies am I supposed to be without time as a resource?

- simultaneously alarming -- students experience new technologies socially but without adult or educator presence or guidance

- faculty remain responsible for fundamentals of instruction -- e.g. students write anything anywhere but can't express themselves accurately or elegantly with language, regardless of publishing arena. There are indeed fundamentals which students must master -- and display skill mastery.

- output -- what are students able to do after the process is complete?

- arts instruction must include one-on-one feedback that is very personal between teacher-student. How can I make larger communication tools (video conference, for example) work for me? Project example : I want you to write the next scene (write a story, finish a story), but do it in collaboration with someone from somewhere completely different. Might end up with a curiosity : does geographic influence have an influence on the creative outcome? Technology more limited than in person interaction, as happened today, when some points were garbled.

- sound /visual disconnection is distressing for some -- asynchronous may not be the best way

-we ourselves are not good technology citizens -- emailing during a keynote address would certainly not have happened if he were in the room. Bill Dunkel said some years ago that US faculty should be present to each other in a meeting with laptops closed. Can we have an influence on etiquette amongst students and amongst ourselves with laptops?

-we have contacts who are great elsewhere in the country to hook students up to -- discussion of other tools

- do we sometimes get attracted to the tool and try to use it and it doesn't work well? streaming quality will improve

- Walker -- collaborative project -- note that there is a huge amount of time, research, building connections involved in fostering effective collaborative projects

- Fine Arts calendar is performance driven. Students cannot function without the fundamental notes. Instruction in fundamentals alone is challenging enough, especially at lower levels (example was MS music program) Same is true of language -- must be a great deal of accurate and meaningful input, and then practice must be monitored. Output from students that is not accurate (example of a selfmade video on testing water) cannot then in turn be students' primary input.

- teachers need a huge amount fo support to make new projects/integrations

- is this one more example of an additional function/job/expectation for teachers that will not be supported adequately?

- can we think more about sharing? People down the hall have ideas and functions that could help us, and we don't operate this way (yet)

---

1) We can build a great 21st century MS idea and not serve our students well, if ls LS/MS/US are not linked in the process or outcome?
We are limited in contact and schedule with US colleagues.
2) Tenets of 21 century instruction -- why do we not model the technology? Why are we so often in meetings talking ABOUT technology but not using it well ourselves in the process? Requires a baseline competency. If we were teaching a classroom lesson with this wiki and notes, we would have looked at the screen, touched the Samrtboard, and given input to produce this document. "Taht's not actually what I said" or "I meant..."
3) Focus will be vital -- to try things and master them -- one at a time? Do a good job -- one window at a time and not 5. Teachers are the ones who can direct that process. Our goal -- model for students.
4) Need many workshops for 1 to 1 laptops -- need time, need training. Purchase is easy, but time later to train has fallen away. Will we get help and TIME from people who can help us?